ABSTRACT

John Gower's choice of Latin for his most intense political writings is no doubt determined by rhetorical calculations concerning the educated and influential audience he hopes to reach. His introductory comments are directed for the most part to the Vox Clamantis, and they comprise not the promised analysis but casual summary of content. Cronica Tripertita records Gower's final rejection of a young king who indulged his willfulness and never came close to fulfilling the promise the optimistic poet pretended to see in him as a youth. The minor poems are the products of diverse poetic impulses and, with the exception of the verses addressed to Henry IV and those generated by historical events, are difficult to bundle even if they conform to conclusions the poet reaches elsewhere in his work. Each section of the Confessio Amantis is prefaced by a Latin head poem that prepares the reader for the narrative content to follow in the English text.